{"id":143399,"date":"2024-03-01T19:12:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T01:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/?p=143399"},"modified":"2024-03-01T19:12:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T01:12:34","slug":"whats-your-bird-saying-do-you-speak-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=143399","title":{"rendered":"What’s Your Bird Saying ~ Do You Speak Bird?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometime between 6:30 and 7 AM every morning I briefly awake to take a pee, quench my morning mouth with a swig of sugar-free ginger ale, and uncover 4 bird cages – not necessarily in that order.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After tossing the birdcage covers in the closet I open Barney’s (cockatiel) cage door and for the only 2 times in any 24 hour period, he\u2019ll hop on my finger allowing himself to be transported to the Booda rope perch atop his domicile birdcage.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/product\/comfy-rope-perch-small-14-inch-35-6-cm-by-booda\/<\/p>\n

Full transparency, my intention is always to go back to bed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barney stays out all day until 7 PM – birdy bedtime when after “letting” him perform aerobatics across the loft until he tires.<\/span><\/p>\n

He will land on the same perch he started the morning on, indicating to me I can, for the second time in a day, stick my finger out allowing me to put him back on the same perch I removed him from in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

As most birds (and all animals) are motivated by food he knows a beefy spray millet<\/a> chunk or 2 awaits him so going back into the cage is a reward in and of itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barney spends most of the day on my headboard and yes we take great prophylactic measures so the bed linens see no poop.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Last week I talked about how occasionally he\u2019ll hop onto the headrest of my giant office chair <\/span>and if I\u2019m sitting in it he\u2019ll tap my head seeking attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/what-are-birds-thinking-part-4-budgies\/<\/p>\n

If he is on his cage on his front-facing rope perch or atop the office chair and I\u2019m about to sit down he will bow his head in search of scritches which is my best connection with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time he has allowed my fingers to pass further around his little neck and scritch deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how Barney “speaks\u201d to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feathered factoid:<\/strong> Never scratch or pet your bird below the neck because from there it gets sexual.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Barney, comes the budgies.<\/span><\/p>\n

They love their aviary because they always easily return to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will open the door and let them out so they can dive-bomb me while I\u2019m trying to fall back asleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barney will do the same (dive bomb me).<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/product\/higgins-naturally-grown-spray-millet-for-birds-in-sealed-bag-12-sprays\/<\/p>\n

Something I find fascinating is that I can tell by the sound of wing flapping, the different species passing over my head.<\/span><\/p>\n

The budgies are all competent fliers except for Jam the oldest female in the flock and despite that or because of that they all get locked up when I leave the room because we have lost Jam for what seems like an eternity because of her poor flying usually \u201clands\u201d her under a piece of furniture in darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

We never got around to socializing the budgies so none are finger-tame but they tolerate us humans who provide food, water, and treats.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll then open Keto’s (African ringneck) birdcage door which I\u2019ll get to in a minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chili remains locked in his cage because if not he\u2019ll sneak into Keto\u2019s cage and just squat.<\/span><\/p>\n

This stresses Keto out who then shrieks until I remove Chili and place him back in his locked cage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This brings us to Keto\u2019s \u201cshrieking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always the same the 4 rapid outbursts of sound, the only sounds that exceed my tinnitus levels BTW.<\/span><\/p>\n

His positioning and the time of day are keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s around 7:30 in the morning and I hear the shrieks, I know I accidentally let Chili out.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it is around 9:30 in the morning the 4 short outbursts indicate that he\u2019s ready to go downstairs to his work cage and more importantly his fresh veggie breakfast with nummy corn.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

If it\u2019s any time past 4 in the afternoon and he\u2019s still downstairs, his vocalizations indicate that he\u2019s ready to go back upstairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s any time past 4 in the afternoon and he\u2019s upstairs, he\u2019ll fly to the top of Barney\u2019s cage and look in his “yellow” dish and if there are not 4 or 5 grey striped sunflower seeds<\/a>, you guessed it CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This brings us to Chili who is expressive in his own right.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019ll start moving rapidly amongst his perches, toys, and dishes in an ever-closing circle once I pull out the glass jar containing the magic sunflower seeds which I feed him one at a time and he gets his own before adding them to Keto\u2019s “yellow” cup.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Because Keto\u2019s door is open I have to feed the sunflower seeds to Chili through the locked cage bars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keto is a Ninja using only his beak to open the shell and down the meat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chili on the other hand is a more structured eater of sunflower seeds.\u00a0<\/span>He will grab one with his beak but it will immediately go to his left zygodactyl foot (using his right to stabilize) where after the shell is open he will take 3 or 4 bites of the small kernel while I dutifully stand there and patiently feed him one a time until he gets as many as Keto gets.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

And so it goes.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Written by Mitch Rezman
\nApproved by Catherine Tobsing<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometime between 6:30 and 7 AM every morning I briefly awake to take a pee, quench my morning mouth with a swig of sugar-free ginger ale, and uncover 4 bird cages – not necessarily in that order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[196,188,197,199,204,265],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-behavior","category-bird-cage-info","category-bird-enviornments","category-bird-nutrition","category-bird-rescue","category-sleeping-birds"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/keto-cage-door-open-7.jpg?resize=595%2C445&ssl=1",595,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/keto-cage-door-open-7.jpg?resize=463%2C348&ssl=1",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/keto-cage-door-open-7.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/keto-cage-door-open-7.jpg?fit=595%2C595&ssl=1",595,595,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/keto-cage-door-open-7.jpg?fit=595%2C595&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phcfkq-BiT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}